Tania Bruguera Arrested Twice in Cuban Censorship Law Protests; Threatens to Go on Hunger Strike.
"Bruguera’s sister, Deborah, along with friend Sofia Karim told us: ‘Tania is continuing in the fight against censorship and for the freedom of the other detained artists. We believe that the artists concerned have commenced a hunger and thirst strike. "
Sofia Karim
ARB, MA (Hons) Arch, Dip Arch
Sofia Karim has practiced architecture for over 20 years at studios including Norman Foster’s in London and Peter Eisenman’s in New York.
Her practice combines architecture, visual art and activism.
The incarceration of her uncle (photographer and activist Shahidul Alam) led to the development of her theories on an ‘Architecture of Disappearance’.
She explores architecture as a language of struggle and resistance and re-examines its ideals of silence, truth, beauty and transcendence through this framework.
Her activism focuses on human rights across Bangladesh and India and artists’ freedom of expression. She campaigned for the release of imprisoned artists, including Dr Alam and Tania Bruguera.
She is the founder of Turbine Bagh, a joint artists’ movement against fascism and authoritarianism. She has staged protest exhibitions at Tate Modern (Turbine Hall).
Her work has been presented at Harvard University and exhibited in museums and galleries in New York, Delhi, Chicago, Houston and London. Her campaigns and art have been covered in publications including The Observer, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Art Newspaper and British Journal of Photography.
She has appeared on BBC World News, Channel 4 News, Al Jazeera and Sky News.
She is the founder of books4jail, a project sending books from artists, writers, and cultural institutions to prisoners.
She is a visiting critic at Westminster school of Architecture.
Exhibitions
V&A, London (Jameel Prize) - September 2021
Wrightwood 659, Chicago - October 2021
Northeastern University, Boston - October 2021
South Asia Institute, Chicago - March 2021
Asia Society, Houston - Feb 2021
Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London - March 2020, October 2018
Exhibit 320, Delhi - February 2020
Rubin Museum, New York - November 2019